Texas Air & Space Museum Wants to Rescue Amarillo’s Historic Hangar

Last week’s heavy rain damaged an important piece of Amarillo’s aviation past.

The English Field hangar, which opened in 1929 and was used for pilot training during World War II, was partially damaged by the downpour. As a result, the Texas Air and Space Museum has expressed interest in taking ownership of the site.

As The Amarillo Globe-News reports, museum president Ron Fernuik spoke at a meeting of the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday and said the Air and Space Museum was worried that the hangar’s poor condition would lead to its demolition if the museum didn’t step in to preserve it.

Members of the Amarillo City Council said they’d need some time to consider the proposal, but they assured the museum’s president that no one would destroy the English Field Hangar in the meantime.

I’m curator of art and western heritage at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum at West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. I’ve been asked to comment on this month’s High Plains Public Radio’s Radio Reader A Strong West Wind by Gayle Caldwell. I’ve lived out here for going on 29 years. I grew up in Kansas and the title appealed to me initially because of the reference to wind. I’m out west of Canyon, a little bit north and west of Canyon. Canyon sits about 18 miles south of Amarillo.